Terence Blanchard

Worldwide

“Music and art have the power to change hearts and souls,” expresses composer and trumpeter Terence Blanchard — a belief brought to life through the music of Blanchard and his E-Collective. This revolutionary ensemble thrives off the perfect mixture of Blanchard’s genius and the innovations of four young musical pioneers: guitarist Charles Altura, pianist Fabian Almazan, bassist David “DJ” Ginyard Jr., and drummer Oscar Seaton. It was while recording the scores for Spike Lee’s Inside Man and Kasi Lemmons’ Talk to Me that Blanchard and Seaton first dreamt of a band that layered grooves teeming with funk, R&B, and blues colors. Years later, that dream came to fruition and formed the foundation for the E-Collective’s signature sound.

Following a poignant E-Collective performance in Staten Island, Blanchard was overwhelmed by the healing impact of his music on the audience. In attendance were many friends and family of Eric Garner – a local man who had been fatally injured in an altercation with police and to whom the E-Collective’s debut album, Breathless, is dedicated. Motivated by this experience, the E-Collective’s 2018 album was recorded live in Twin Cities, Cleveland, Dallas, and Harlem, all of which are cities that have been similarly wounded by racial tensions. Coinciding with these recording sessions, Blanchard worked with local community leaders to host panel discussions encouraging dialogue for positive social change. As the E-Collective ventures into uncharted territories, there is a common understanding that creation and communication generate change.

From South Bend Tribune
Trumpeter Terence Blanchard uses his music to speak for the voiceless
By: Howard Dukes
Taylor Hackford knew who to call when looking for a musician to do the original soundtrack for his film “The Comedian.”
He looked to New Orleans for trumpeter Terence Blanchard, who is one of the headliners for this year’s Elkhart Jazz Festival....

From The Daily Nebraskan
Seasoned jazz musician Terence Blanchard headlines Jazz in June on June 20, music expresses social justice theme
By: Gayle Rocz
The list of Blanchard’s experience is extensive. From composing the score of every Spike Lee film since 1991 to his 11 Grammy nominations, Blanchard has received recognition as one of the most prominent jazz musicians of...

From Lincoln Journal Star
Terence Blanchard to bring groove-oriented, bitingly political music to Jazz in June
By: L. Kent Wolgamott
Terence Blanchard is a top-tier jazz trumpeter, with five Grammy Awards from 13 nominations and more than 30 albums.
He took over for Wynton Marsalis in Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers at the tender age of 20, following it up with...

From The Post and Courier
Terence Blanchard brings New Orleans vibe to the Holy City
By: Christian Medina Beltz
When trumpeter Terence Blanchard blows his horn, the notes articulate a feeling about life and how it’s lived.
“The beautiful thing about art, there’s so many ways to express a feeling,” Blanchard said. “Classic music is timeless, but recreating it is...

From Charleston City Paper
Trumpeter Terence Blanchard’s new E-Collective band takes him into uncharted territory
By: Vincent Harris
In a career that’s spanned almost 40 years, trumpeter, composer, and bandleader Terence Blanchard has done just about all one can do in the jazz world. He studied under Ellis Marsalis at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. He’s toured with...

From NPR
Terence Blanchard On Piano Jazz
Grammy award-winning trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard carries the torch of New Orleans jazz in the tradition of the great Louis Armstrong, who shares his hometown. In 2004, Blanchard was Marian McPartland’s guest on Piano Jazz. McPartland and Blanchard are joined by bassist Gary Mazzaroppi for a trio set of standards such as...

From The Times-Picayune (NOLA)
Terence Blanchard as he watched Confederate Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard’s removal: ‘It’s a historic moment’
By: Beau Evans
Among the dozens of onlookers who watched workers take down the statue of P.G.T. Beauregard on Wednesday morning was Terence Blanchard, the celebrated trumpet player. Blanchard spoke to a NOLA.com | Times Picayune reporter about his feelings about the...

From Houstonia
Grammy-Winning Trumpeter Terence Blanchard Performs in Houston
By: Chris Becker
For those who only know Blanchard as a skilled master of classic jazz, The E-Collective may sound like a departure. Whether tearing it up on the Mary J. Blige-esque ballad “Shutting Down,” which was sung on the album by singer and Maroon 5 keyboardist PJ Morton, or channeling...

From The Times
Jazz: Terence Blanchard: The Comedian
By: Chris Pearson
For many the Blue Note brand will always mean hard bop: robust swing with a soulful shot of rhythm and blues. That late-Fifties/early-Sixties golden age is long gone and even in its present incarnation the label covers all shades of contemporary jazz, as it should. So what a surprise...

From The Buffalo News
Terence Blanchard music for ‘The Comedian’ is no laughing matter
By: Jeff Simon
Yes, this music was used in Taylor Hackford’s movie starring Robert DeNiro, Danny DeVito and Leslie Mann, but do not, for a second, think of this as a soundtrack record. It’s a first-rate jazz record with some truly great jazz musicians playing music...

From Theater Jones
Love Trumpets Hate
At AT&T Performing Arts Center, Terence Blanchard and the E-Collective wages racial peace through an emotional groove.
By: Amy Martin
Six months after an African-American gunman killed five white and Hispanic Dallas police and DART officers, Terence Blanchard and the E-Collective rolled into Dallas with a message: We had to be here.” In announcing...

From The New York Times Magazine
Great Performers: L.A. Noir
Watch this stunning series of short noir inspired short films with stars such as Don Cheadle, Natalie Portman, Casey Affeck and more. Music composed and performed by Terence Blanchard.
To watch the videos click here

From The Joyce Foundation
2017 Joyce Awards Announced
By: Tracie Hall, Culture Program Director
As the new Culture Program Director at the Joyce Foundation, it’s my great pleasure to announce the winners of the 2017 Joyce Awards. I am especially pleased that these winners speak to the vital role of the arts in community development and social justice.
The 2017...

From WGNO
Terence Blanchard composes music in New Orleans for a film that stars Robert De Niro
By: Jabari Thomas
“A movie without music is kind of like life without color,” jazz musician Terence Blanchard said.
Most people don’t know how much work goes into putting a film together. Pre-production and production are two beasts to take on by themselves....

From The Philadelphia Inquirer
Terence Blanchard & his E-Collective tune up the Annenberg Center on Friday
By: Henry Adebonojo
Terence Blanchard has never been what you’d call predictable. Like Wynton Marsalis before him, the trumpeter left New Orleans in the early ’80s, served an apprenticeship with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, and seemed destined for leadership in the tradition-focused “Young Lions”...

From The Washington Post
Jazz trumpeter Terence Blanchard is all about ‘creating conversations’
By: Roger Catlin
Grammy-winning trumpeter Terence Blanchard was considered one of the pillars of the straight-ahead jazz resurgence of the 1980s. The New Orleans native played with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra and Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers before leading his own hard bop ensembles, recording dozens...

From The Warrington Guardian
INTERVIEW: Grammy-winning jazz artist Terence Blanchard on inspiring the next generation of performers, working with Spike Lee and life in New Orleans
By: David Morgan
He is a Grammy award-winning trumpeter and bandleader who has composed the music for every Spike Lee film since the 90s.
But despite all his accolades, what makes Terence Blanchard more...

From The New York Times
A Cri de Coer from Jazz Musicians in a Black Lives Matter Age
By: Nate Chinen
The emotional climax of Terence Blanchard’s SummerStage concert on Friday night, at Clove Lakes Park on Staten Island, arrived precisely one hour in, like a timed detonation. It was the title track of his most recent album, “Breathless” —...

From SILive
By Victoria Priola
Terence Blanchard: ‘Breathless’ for Eric Garner
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Looking for a free concert to go to this summer? Well, you’re in luck.
From Aug. 2-7, SummerStage, presented by Capital One Bank, will fill Clove Lakes Park with jazz music, film, and family fun. The best part? All shows are free.
“Jazz culture should...

From The Wall Street Journal
An Artist Brings Civil Rights Statement to Staten Island
By: Jennifer Smith
New Orleans trumpet player and composer Terence Blanchard has performed his latest album, “Breathless,” on both sides of the Atlantic, but his concert this week in New York, part of the annual SummerStage series in city parks, has a special resonance.
The multi-Grammy-winning...

From Indy Week
Art of Cool 2016: Terence Blanchard on Putting Civil Unrest to a Groove
By: Dan Ruccia
Terence Blanchard isn’t afraid of injecting politics into his music. In addition to writing the soundtrack to every Spike Lee film since Jungle Fever, the trumpeter has recorded albums about Malcolm X and Hurricane Katrina.
His latest album, Breathless, takes Eric...

From The Bay State Banner
Terence Blanchard on teaching the next generation of musicians
By: Colette Greenstein
“If you give these kids the tools to handle the stuff where they can look at something else and really appreciate it, but know that what they have is of worth too, then you stand a better chance for them developing and becoming...

The Movie Music of Spike Lee & Terence Blanchard
from arte.tv
An incredible performance with the Terence Blanchard Quintet, Dee Dee Bridgewater, China Moses, Becca Stevens and the Polish National Radio Symphonic Orchestra conducted by Alexander Humala.
Check out the full video here

From The Huffington Post
Terence Blanchard’s Champion: An Opera in Jazz — a Unanimous Winner in San Francisco
By: Pamela Feinsilber
It’s just past mid-February, and yet it seems safer than safe to claim that one of the year’s most exciting musical productions just opened at the SFJazz Center. The name alone, Champion: An Opera in Jazz, tells you how...

From WEMU
Terence Blanchard: Man Of Composition And Concern
By: Linda Yohn
Terence Blanchard is no stranger to Detroit as the 2015-16 Jazz Creative Director for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and was the 2012 Artist in Residence for the Detroit Jazz Festival. This Sunday, January 24th trumpeter, composer, arranger Terence Blanchard returns to Detroit for two performances at Cliff Bell’s...

From NPR
Hidden inside our enormous year-end Songs We Love 2015 app — 401 songs across a dozen genres compiled by NPR Music and our public radio partners — is a playlist of 61 jewels, the ones we loved the best. We polled our entire team —including dozens of hosts from around the country — and these are the songs...

From Miami Herald
Spike Lee’s movie composer Terence Blanchard opens Jazz Roots series
By: Michelle F. Solomon
When trumpeter Terence Blanchard arrives in Miami this week to perform in the opening of the Jazz Roots series at the Adrienne Arsht Center, he will have just finished scoring his fifteenth movie for director Spike Lee, Chiraq.
“We finished it two weeks...

From The New Orleans Advocate
Terence Blanchard proves he belongs at Voodoo Fest with strong performance
By: Alex Rawls
Since 2006, Voodoo has tried to make sure that the festival offers those interested a local experience in addition to its international lineup. It has even included jazz bands, which rarely seem like a good fit.
At first, Terence Blanchard and...

From gambit
Interview: New Orleans favorite Terence Blanchard on his work with the E-Collective
By: Theo Schell-Lambert
Terence Blanchard has one of the great charged tones in modern jazz. His protean trumpet can come off sleek or soulful, invigorated or exasperated, often all those at once. Blanchard’s horn is listenable but never easy, seemingly living in a higher, more pitched...

From JazzTimes
Terence Blanchard: The Frission of Fusion
By: Terence Blanchard
A picture periodically reappears in my Facebook newsfeed of a memo that producer Teo Macero wrote to the executives at Columbia Records on Nov. 14, 1969. It reads:
“Miles just called and said he wants this album to be titled: ‘BITCHES BREW’
Please advise. Teo”
Someone, who has no...

From PBS
TAVIS SMILEY
Trumpeter Terence Blanchard
The multiple Grammy-winning trumpeter and composer talks about his latest project “Breathless,” and performs from the new album.
To watch the video click here

From The New Orleans Times-Picayune
The Gulf Coast’s resilient spirit is the star of Robin Roberts’ Katrina-anniversary ABC special
By: Dave Walker
ABC’s “Katrina: 10 Years After the Storm With Robin Roberts,” which airs Sunday evening (Aug. 23) on WGNO, played well on Wednesday (Aug. 19) to a highly-invested New Orleans screening audience, many of whom appear in the special....

From Mother Jones
Jazz Heavyweight Terence Blanchard Won’t Turn a Blind Eye
By: Jacob Blickenstaff
Fifty-three year-old New Orleans-born trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard is a heavyweight among his musical peers, and not only for his passion as an amateur boxer. As a bandleader, he has released 20 albums over the past three decades. A prolific composer for film and...

Terence Blanchard recently dropped his 20th album, Breathless, with his latest quintet, The E-Collective (featuring vocals by PJ Morton of Maroon 5). With Breathless, Blanchard joins the growing list of contemporary artists (D’Angelo, Kendrick Lamar, J.Cole) utilizing their musical reach as a way to affect change in America. The album’s fusion of funk, jazz and blues is a statement piece,...

It was a mix of subdued anguish laced with beauty. The brilliance of trumpeter/composer Terence Blanchard’s A Tale Of God’s Will (A Requiem For Katrina), featuring 13 pieces from Spike Lee’s documentary When the Levees Broke, was performed in Detroit’s Orchestra Hall on June 4 with Blanchard’s group and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, led by musical director Leonard Slatkin.
…A...

Grammy-winning jazz trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard makes a powerful political and musical statement with his new E-Collective quintet on “Breathless,” his first plunge as a bandleader into groove-based electric fusion music drawing on funk, R&B and the blues.
The title track, inspired by the last words (“I can’t breathe”) of Eric Garner, who died in a New York police...

Terence Blanchard and New Orleans have long been inseparable. Born and raised in the city, Blanchard returned there to live in 1995, and even after building an A-list career in jazz as a trumpeter, bandleader and composer in forms as diverse as film scores and opera, his cultural ties to the Crescent City remain as strong as new rope.
But...

For anyone listening to the album, what do you hope they take away from it?
First of all, I just hope that they enjoy the music. I don’t want people to get too serious about it — music is supposed to wash away the dust of everyday life. Hopefully the music can be an escape.
On the other hand, there...

Grammy-winning trumpeter/composer Terence Blanchard returns with a new album Breathless on May 26th via Blue Note Records, merging funk, R&B and blues colors to create something unique and powerful. A reference to Eric Garner’s last words, “I can’t breathe,” the album is both a poignant statement and a staggering musical accomplishment. With his band E-Collective and producer Don Was, Blanchard...

Trumpeter/composer Terence Blanchard‘s artistry is highly respected, as evidenced by his multiple Grammy wins and his enduring career as a popular bandleader. He and his new quintet, The E-Collective, are exploring a variety of original compositions and a few select covers on their new release for Blue Note Records, Breathless, dropping May 26th. The album is as forward thinking in...

Blanchard’s E-Collective roared in the Jazz Tent, mixing potent funk with buzzing electronic orchestrations that made one think a thunderstorm might be brewing over Lake Pontchartrain. If it sometimes recalled the edgy fusion made by Miles Davis in the 1970s, it also went beyond it, tapping the potent grunge expressiveness of rock.
Blanchard’s band knew just what he wanted. Fabian...

The origin story of Breathless, Terence Blanchard’s spring Blue Note release with his new group, E-Collective, dates to 2006, when Blanchard recorded the soundtrack he’d composed for Inside Man, the Spike Lee caper film in which Denzel Washington plays a hard-boiled old-school detective. He hired drummer Oscar Seaton for the session, and dug Seaton’s mighty grooves. Seaton enjoyed the process,...

On May 26, Blue Note Records will release “Breathless,” by Blanchard and his current band, the E-Collective. Like his Grammy-winning 2007 masterpiece “A Tale of God’s Will (A Requiem for Katrina),” “Breathless” is a thematic album inspired by tragedy. “A Tale of God’s Will” was Blanchard’s eloquent, elegant response to Hurricane Katrina. “Breathless” considers the deaths of African-American men at...

What happens when a top-tier jazz trumpeter and composer with more than 50 soundtracks of musical storytelling experience is inspired by the “I Can’t Breathe” campaign? Throw in influences from soul, pop and funk and you’ve got Terence Blanchard’s upcoming album “Breathless.”
Blanchard is already touring with the music from this project and his new band, The E-Collective. Ahead of...

Grammy Award-winning trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard once said, “If you are hung up on maintaining the tradition, you’re never going to be yourself. This is music about breaking the tradition.” In two very different concerts (one this week and one at the Playboy Jazz Festival in June), Blanchard will be celebrating the past of jazz as well as its...

Terence Blanchard Symphony

HERBIEHANCOCK: BY HIMSELFTerence Blanchard’s Work in Two Movements for Piano, Saxophone, Trumpet and Orchestra
For decades Herbie Hancock has influenced music in various genres and art in many forms: his recordings, his compositions, his writing; his spirit. Inspired by his genius, Terence Blanchard is being commissioned to write a work in two movements focusing on Hancock’s iconic improvised, impressionistic piano solos. The lyrical passages and spontaneous essence of these solos will be the basis for a work featuring piano, saxophone, trumpet and orchestra.

In 2005 Blanchard had the chance to work with Hancock on the Blue Note album Flow. “When Herbie Hancock sat down at the piano, it was a totally different type of lesson, and every [recording] session was filled with lessons,” shared Blanchard. “Every take was so different in their approach. He is truly an artist.”

This important new commission brings together the power and versatility of an orchestra with the post-bop sound we have come to associate with Hancock’s works. “At every moment onstage players are making choices, and each choice affects every other member of the group. So each player has to be prepared to change directions at any given moment,” says Hancock.

Known for his improvisational prowess, Hancock offers up a glimpse into his process when performing for a live audience: “I have ten fingers, and they’re in motion almost all the time, so all of those decisions must happen in an instant.” This new work will capture that moment.

Herbie Hancock: By Himself will premiere at Walt Disney Hall with the LA Philharmonic in February 2017.

A TALE OF GOD’S WILLTerence Blanchard’s Grammy Award winning album A TALE OF GOD’S WILL (A Requiem For Katrina) is a beautifully haunting and impassioned song-cycle about the physical and emotional ravages incurred upon the City of New Orleans and its residents as a result of Hurricane Katrina. Featuring thirteen original compositions, A TALE OF GOD’S WILL is an evocative, emotional journey of a city whose spirit, even through the most devastating of circumstances, lives on…as told by one of New Orleans’ proudest residents.

THEMOVIEMUSIC OF SPIKELEE & TERENCEBLANCHARDSpike Lee and Terence Blanchard have enjoyed a long and fruitful relationship as filmmaker and composer on several collaborations over the years. The Movie Music of Spike Lee & Terence Blanchard showcases the stunning scores and songs from eight Spike Lee films, featuring Blanchard’s quintet, chamber orchestra, and three special guest vocalists, with specially designed images of the films projected throughout the performance. Engagements at Carnegie Hall, Orchestra Hall in Chicago, the Hollywood Bowl, Europe and beyond have featured appearances by Dianne Reeves, Kurt Elling, Bruce Hornsby, Public Enemy, Chaka Khan, Mavis Staples, Cassandra Wilson, Patti Austin, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Jamie Cullum, and introductions by Spike Lee himself. Special guests vary and are subject to availability.

JAZZ IN FILM
Join Grammy Award winning trumpeter Terence Blanchard in exploration of Jazz in Film, featuring noir-nuanced renditions of motion picture music spanning from the 1950’s through today, with selections from Blanchard’s own film compositions, all arranged for jazz quintet. Blanchard has scored over 40 acclaimed films, best known for his work with director/provocateur Spike Lee (Malcolm X, Inside Man, Miracle at St. Anna) and on films such as Cadillac Records, Love & Basketball, Gia, and Eve’s Bayou, in addition to recording the movie music of Duke Ellington, Quincy Jones, Bernard Herman, Jerry Goldsmith, and Andre Previn. For a full list of Blanchard’s film credits click HERE.

A trumpeter of expressive urgency and a composer of expansive vision.The New York Times

Terence Blanchard has always been forward thinking, but with E-Collective he shoots straight into tomorrow adding all sorts of different types of electricity and attitude to a new set of tunes. The concept is still right now with a more modern edge and sound, vocals and all, but it’s still the tough but tender, timeless but vital unique tone that marks Terence’s horn as one of the truly great and classic jazzmen.DownBeat